Systems and methods for targeting ad impressions

ABSTRACT

The present disclosure includes a system, method, and article of manufacture for targeting ad impressions. A list of customer records may be transmitted to a service provider system that identifies a matched customer and installs a cookie on a web client associated with the matched customer. The system may further receive a campaign request from a merchant and transmit the campaign request to the service provider system which may add a flag to the cookie based on the campaign request as well as instruct a media buyer system to bid on an ad impression for the matched customer based on the flag. The system may further receive an expenditure associated with the matched customer who received the ad impression and compare the expenditure to an expenditure associated with a customer who did not receive targeted ad impression but fits parameters associated with the campaign request.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of, priority to and is acontinuation of, U.S. Ser. No. 13/245,636, entitled “Systems and Methodsfor Targeting Ad Impressions,” filed on Sep. 26, 2011, the entiredisclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference for any purpose.

BACKGROUND

Field

The present disclosure generally relates to targeting marketing, andmore particularly, to methods, systems, and articles of manufacture fortargeting ad impressions to customers and consumers based upon spend.The methods, systems, and articles described herein are further directedto the measurement of the effectiveness and relevance of those adimpressions.

Related Art

Businesses frequently store a variety of information relating to theinterests and activities of their customers. For example, transactionaccount companies (e.g., American Express, Visa, Discover, etc.)typically maintain information about the purchasing habits and/orproduct affinities of their customers. Transaction account issuingcompanies and payment processors may use this information to targetadvertisements, promotional offers, discounts, and the like to theircustomers. Thus, the information that transaction account companiescollect about their customers enables a more relevant provision ofservices to customers.

Although transaction account companies and payment processors often haveaccess to a variety of purchasing information, this information istypically unavailable to merchants. Thus, merchants are unable toincorporate into their marketing efforts data associated with the actualshopping activities of transaction account customers. Merchants aretherefore limited, due to an incomplete understanding of the interestsof these customers, in their efforts to provide relevant and usefuloffers and services.

Accordingly, an improved system for understanding the interests andneeds of transaction account customers is needed. This system shouldpermit merchants to target marketing and other promotional offers totransaction account customers based on the purchasing activities ofthose customers. The system should further permit transaction accountcompanies to measure the success and value of the system, particularlyfrom a customer's standpoint. In other words, the system shouldincorporate an ability to evaluate the actual relevance ofadvertisements, offers, promotions, and discounts that are served ordelivered to customers.

Finally, the system should seek to preserve the privacy of the customersit aims to serve. To this end, the system should incorporate one or moremethods for maintaining the anonymity of customers.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure includes a system, method, and article ofmanufacture for targeting ad impressions. In various embodiments, a listof customer records may be transmitted to a service provider system thatidentifies a matched customer and installs a cookie on a web clientassociated with the matched customer. The system may further receive acampaign request from a merchant and transmit the campaign request tothe service provider system which may add a flag to the cookie based onthe campaign request as well as instruct a media buyer system to bid onan ad impression for the matched customer based on the flag. The systemmay further receive an expenditure associated with the matched customerwho received the ad impression and compare the expenditure to anexpenditure associated with a customer who did not receive targeted adimpression but fits parameters associated with the campaign request.

In various embodiments, a report showing the results of this comparisonmay be generated and provided to a merchant associated with the campaignrequest. A report showing a click through associated with matchedcustomers who received targeted ad impressions may also be generated. Aclick through may be shown in comparison to a click through associatedwith customers who did not receive targeted ad impressions

In various embodiments, the system, method, and/or article ofmanufacture may further permit, via the web client, the matched customerwho received the targeted ad impression to select a type of adimpression in which the matched customer is interested. The matchedcustomer may be further permitted to remove a flag from the cookie inresponse to a selection by the customer of a type of ad impression inwhich the matched customer is not interested. The system, method, and/orarticle may further comprise receiving an updated campaign request fromthe merchant in response to at least one of: a report showing theresults of the comparing and a click through associated with customerswho received targeted ad impressions.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The features and advantages of the present disclosure will become moreapparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken inconjunction with the drawings. The left-most digit of a reference numberidentifies the drawing in which the reference number first appears.

FIG. 1 shows an exemplary system diagram in accordance with variousembodiments.

FIGS. 2A and 2B shows a flowchart depicting an exemplary process fortargeting an ad impression in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary screenshot depicting an opt in and opt outselection feature in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 4 shows an exemplary screenshot depicting an opt in and opt outselection feature associated with a plurality of ad impressions inaccordance with various embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The detailed description of exemplary embodiments herein makes referenceto the accompanying drawings, which show the exemplary embodiments byway of illustration and their best mode. While these exemplaryembodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilledin the art to practice the disclosure, it should be understood thatother embodiments may be realized and that logical and mechanicalchanges may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of thedisclosure. Thus, the detailed description herein is presented forpurposes of illustration only and not of limitation. For example, thesteps recited in any of the method or process descriptions may beexecuted in any order and are not limited to the order presented.Moreover, any of the functions or steps may be outsourced to orperformed by one or more third parties. Furthermore, any reference tosingular includes plural embodiments, and any reference to more than onecomponent may include a singular embodiment.

Phrases and terms similar to “transaction account” or “credit account”may include any account that may be used to facilitate a financialtransaction.

Phrases and terms similar to “financial institution” or “transactionaccount issuer” may include any entity that offers transaction accountservices. Although often referred to as a “financial institution,” thefinancial institution may represent any type of bank, lender or othertype of account issuing institution, such as credit card companies, cardsponsoring companies, or third party issuers under contract withfinancial institutions. It is further noted that other participants maybe involved in some phases of the transaction, such as an intermediarysettlement institution.

The terms “payment vehicle,” “financial transaction instrument,”“transaction instrument” and/or the plural form of these terms may beused interchangeably throughout to refer to a financial instrument.

Phrases and terms similar to “item” may include any good, service,information, experience, data, content, access, rental, lease,contribution, account, credit, debit, benefit, right, reward, points,coupons, credits, monetary equivalent, anything of value, something ofminimal or no value, monetary value, non-monetary value and/or the like.

Phrases and terms similar to “merchant,” “supplier” or “seller” mayinclude any entity that receives payment or other consideration. Forexample, a merchant may request payment for items sold to a customer orconsumer who holds an account with a transaction account issuer.

Phrases and terms similar to “customer,” or “transaction accountcustomer” may include any entity that purchases items using atransaction account. Thus, for example, a transaction account customermay purchase, lease, rent, barter or otherwise obtain items from asupplier and pay the supplier using a transaction account.

As used herein, a “consumer” may include any entity that providespayment or other consideration in exchange for the sale of one or moreitems.

As used herein, “personally identifying information,” or “PII,” maycomprise any information that may be used to identify an individual(e.g., a consumer, a customer, etc.) For instance, in variousembodiments, PII may comprise an individual's name, address, telephonenumber, email address, gender, birth date, social security number, aunique identifier associated with the individual, one or moretransaction accounts, demographic data, and the like.

As used herein, “internal data” may include any data a transactionaccount issuer possesses or acquires pertaining to a particular customeror consumer. Internal data may be gathered before, during, or after arelationship between the transaction account issuer and the transactionaccount holder (e.g., the consumer or buyer). Such data may includecustomer or consumer PII, which may include demographic data.Demographic data may include any data pertaining to a customer orconsumer. Demographic data may include name, address, telephone number,email address, employer and social security number. Transactional datais any data pertaining to the particular transactions in which acustomer or consumer engages during any given time period. Transactionaldata may include, for example, transaction amount, transaction time,transaction vendor/merchant, and transaction vendor/merchant location.Transaction vendor/merchant location may contain a high degree ofspecificity to a vendor/merchant. For example, transactionvendor/merchant location may include a particular gasoline filingstation in a particular postal code located at a particular crosssection or address. Also, for example, transaction vendor/merchantlocation may include a particular web address, such as a UniformResource Locator (“URL”), an email address and/or an Internet Protocol(“IP”) address for a vendor/merchant. Transaction vendor/merchant, andtransaction vendor/merchant location may be associated with a particularconsumer and further associated with sets of consumers. Payment dataincludes any data pertaining to a customer's or consumer's history ofpaying debt obligations. Payment data may include payment dates, paymentamounts, balance amount, and credit limit. Internal data may furthercomprise records of customer or consumer service calls, complaints,requests for credit line increases, questions, and comments. A record ofa customer or consumer service call includes, for example, date of call,reason for call, and any transcript or summary of the actual call.

As used herein, an “ad impression” or “advertisement impression” maycomprise an appearance of an advertisement on a web page. An adimpression may be based upon a “creative,” which may comprise a templateor file which forms the basis for an ad impression. That is, forexample, a plurality of ad impressions may be served based upon a singlecreative.

Phrases and terms similar to “cookie,” “HTTP cookie,” “web cookie,”“browser cookie” and the like include one or more files and/orcompilations of data transmitted by a website or web-server to adestination machine (e.g., a web client). Cookies may comprise a varietyof data, including state data, session data, shopping cart data,customer preference data, and the like. A cookie may be stored by a webclient and returned later to the website or web-server with which thecookie originated (i.e., the website or web-server that set the cookie).A cookie may also be transmitted to a non-originating website orweb-server (i.e., a website or web server that did not set the cookie).

Further, as used herein, a cookie may contain a “cookie ID.” A cookie IDmay comprise any data that uniquely identifies a consumer, customer,and/or web client. Thus, a cookie ID may comprise a number, analphanumeric string, a purely alphabetical string, a single character,and/or any other data element or compilation that may be used touniquely identify consumer, customer, and/or web client. A cookie ID mayfurther serve to anonymously identify a consumer, customer, and/or webclient, in which case the cookie ID may not contain any PII associatedwith the consumer, customer, and/or web client.

A system for targeting ad impressions is disclosed. In variousembodiments, a system for targeting ad impressions to customers basedupon actual spend data is disclosed. Referring to FIG. 1, a system 100for targeting ad impressions is disclosed. System 100 may comprise a webclient 102, a network 104, a transaction account issuer system 106, aservice provider system 108, a media buyer system 110, an advertisementexchange (“ad exchange”) system 112, and/or a merchant system 114.

A web client 102 may comprise any device (e.g., personal computer) whichcommunicates via any network, for example such as those discussedherein. Such browser applications comprise Internet browsing softwareinstalled within a computing unit or a system to conduct onlinetransactions and/or communications. These computing units or systems maytake the form of a computer or set of computers, although other types ofcomputing units or systems may be used, including laptops, notebooks,hand held computers, personal digital assistants, set-top boxes,workstations, computer-servers, main frame computers, mini-computers, PCservers, pervasive computers, network sets of computers, personalcomputers, such as iPads, iMACs, and MacBooks, kiosks, terminals, pointof sale (POS) devices and/or terminals, televisions, or any other devicecapable of receiving data over a network. A web client may run MicrosoftInternet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple Safari, or anyother of the myriad software packages available for browsing theinternet.

In various embodiments, a web client 102 may or may not be in directcontact with an application server. For example, a web client 102 mayaccess the services of an application server through another serverand/or hardware component, which may have a direct or indirectconnection to an Internet server. For example, a web client 102 maycommunicate with an application server via a load balancer. In variousembodiments, access is through a network or the Internet through acommercially available web browser software package.

A web client 102 may include an operating system (e.g., Windows NT,95/98/2000/CE/Mobile, OS2, UNIX, Linux, Solaris, MacOS, PalmOS, etc.) aswell as various conventional support software and drivers typicallyassociated with computers. A web client 102 may include any suitablepersonal computer, network computer, workstation, personal digitalassistant, cellular phone, smart phone, minicomputer, mainframe or thelike. A web client 102 can be in a home or business environment withaccess to a network. In various embodiments, access is through a networkor the Internet through a commercially available web-browser softwarepackage. A web client 102 may implement security protocols such asSecure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS). A webclient 102 may implement several application layer protocols includinghttp, https, ftp, and sftp.

Web client 102, transaction account issuer system 106, service providersystem 108, media buyer system 110, advertising exchange (“ad exchange”)112, and/or merchant system 114, may communicate via a network 104. Asused herein, the team “network” may include any cloud, cloud computingsystem or electronic communications system or method which incorporateshardware and/or software components. Communication among the parties maybe accomplished through any suitable communication channels, such as,for example, a telephone network, an extranet, an intranet, Internet,point of interaction device (point of sale device, personal digitalassistant (e.g., iPhone®, Palm Pilot®, Blackberry®), cellular phone,kiosk, etc.), online communications, satellite communications, off-linecommunications, wireless communications, transponder communications,local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), virtual privatenetwork (VPN), networked or linked devices, keyboard, mouse and/or anysuitable communication or data input modality. Moreover, although thesystem is frequently described herein as being implemented with TCP/IPcommunications protocols, the system may also be implemented using IPX,Appletalk, IP-6, NetBIOS, OSI, any tunneling protocol (e.g. IPsec, SSH),or any number of existing or future protocols. If the network 104 is inthe nature of a public network, such as the Internet, it may beadvantageous to presume the network to be insecure and open toeavesdroppers. Specific information related to the protocols, standards,and application software utilized in connection with the Internet isgenerally known to those skilled in the art and, as such, need not bedetailed herein. See, for example, DILIP NAIK, INTERNET STANDARDS ANDPROTOCOLS (1998); JAVA 2 COMPLETE, various authors, (Sybex 1999);DEBORAH RAY AND ERIC RAY, MASTERING HTML 4.0 (1997); and LOSHIN, TCP/IPCLEARLY EXPLAINED (1997) and DAVID GOURLEY AND BRIAN TOTTY, HTTP, THEDEFINITIVE GUIDE (2002), the contents of which are hereby incorporatedby reference.

The various system components may be independently, separately orcollectively suitably coupled to the network 104 via data links whichincludes, for example, a connection to an Internet Service Provider(ISP) over the local loop as is typically used in connection withstandard modem communication, cable modem, Dish networks, ISDN, DigitalSubscriber Line (DSL), or various wireless communication methods, see,e.g., GILBERT HELD, UNDERSTANDING DATA COMMUNICATIONS (1996), which ishereby incorporated by reference. It is noted that the network 104 maybe implemented as other types of networks, such as an interactivetelevision (ITV) network. Moreover, the system contemplates the use,sale or distribution of any goods, services or information over anynetwork having similar functionality described herein.

“Cloud” or “Cloud computing” includes a model for enabling convenient,on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computingresources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services)that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal managementeffort or service provider interaction. Cloud computing may includelocation-independent computing, whereby shared servers provideresources, software, and data to computers and other devices on demand.For more information regarding cloud computing, see the NIST's (NationalInstitute of Standards and Technology) definition of cloud computing athttp://csrc.nist.gov/groups/SNS/cloud-computing/cloud-def-v15.doc (lastvisited Feb. 4, 2011), which is hereby incorporated by reference in itsentirety.

Transaction account issuer system 106 may comprise a computer-basedsystem owned and/or operated by a transaction account issuer (e.g.,American Express). A transaction account issuer system 106 may compriseone or more databases, one or more web servers, one or more applicationservers, and the like. A transaction account issuer system 106 maycomprise internal data, as described elsewhere herein. For instance, atransaction account issuer system 106 may comprise a database thatstores data associated with one or more transaction account customers.

Service provider system 108 may comprise a computer-based system ownedand/or operated by a service provider (e.g., a provider of consumerdata). A service provider system 108 may comprise one or more databases,one or more web servers, one or more application servers, and the like.In various embodiments, a service provider system 108 may comprise dataassociated with one or more online consumers. For example, a serviceprovider system 108 may comprise PII associated with one or moreconsumers, one or more cookie and/or cookie data associated with one ormore consumers, and the like. In various embodiments, a service providersystem 108 may communicate with a transaction account issuer system 106and/or a media buyer system 110.

Media buyer system 110 may comprise a computer-based system owned and/oroperated by a media buyer (e.g., a purchaser of advertisements or adimpressions, as described elsewhere herein). A media buyer system 110may comprise one or more databases, one or more web servers, one or moreapplication servers, and the like. In various embodiments, a media buyersystem 110 may communicate with an advertisement exchange 112 (or, “adexchange”), a service provider system 108, and/or a transaction accountissuer system 106 for the purchase and delivery of one or more adimpressions to a web client 102.

An ad exchange 112 may comprise a computer-based system that facilitatesonline purchases and sales of ad impressions. In various embodiments,media buyer system 110 may communicate with ad exchange 112, which mayitself communicate with a variety of advertising networks (or “adnetworks”), to purchase one or more ad impressions, as describedelsewhere herein. For example, in various embodiments, media buyersystem 110 may communicate with a plurality of ad exchanges 112 (e.g.,AdECN®, Right Media®, DoubleClick®, and/or Zinc Exchange®) to purchaseone or more ad impressions. Further, in various embodiments, an adexchange 112 may communicate with a media buyer system 110, a serviceprovider system 108, and/or a transaction account issuer system 106 forthe purchase and delivery of one or more ad impressions to a web client102.

Merchant system 114 may comprise a system owned and/or operated by amerchant. In various embodiments, merchant system 114 may comprise oneor more databases, one or more web servers, one or more applicationservers, and the like. A merchant system 114 may communicate with atransaction account issuer system 106, a service provider system 108, amedia buyer system 110, and/or an ad exchange 112 to request an adcampaign, or to make an ad campaign request, as described elsewhereherein.

Referring now to FIGS. 2-4, the process flows and screenshots depictedare merely embodiments and are not intended to limit the scope of thedisclosure. For example, the steps recited in any of the method orprocess descriptions may be executed in any order and are not limited tothe order presented. It will be appreciated that the followingdescription makes appropriate references not only to the steps and userinterface elements depicted in FIGS. 2-4, but also to the various systemcomponents as described above with reference to FIG. 1.

With reference to FIGS. 2A and 2B, a process 200 for targeting adimpressions is disclosed. A transaction account issuer system 106 and/ora service provider system 108 may match transaction account issuerinternal data to service provider data (step 202). More particularly,and in various embodiments, a transaction account issuer system 106and/or a service provider system 108 may match internal data (e.g.,transaction account customer PII such as a name and/or an address of acustomer) provided by transaction account issuer system 106 to PIIstored by service provider system 108. The result of this matching maycomprise a list or “matched list” of transaction account customers whosePII also exists in a database or data store associated with serviceprovider system 108. These customers may be referred to herein as“matched customers.” Thus, a matched list may comprise a list of matchedcustomers, and a matched customer may comprise a transaction accountcustomer whose identity, or PII, is also known to, or stored by, system108.

Service provider system 108 and/or transaction account issuer system 106may install a cookie on a web client 102 associated with a matchedcustomer (step 204). This installation may occur in response togeneration of a matched list, and the cookie may not include any PIIassociated with the matched customer. That is, a cookie, or an“anonymized cookie,” may be stripped of any PII that may be associatedwith a matched customer (e.g., PII that was used to match a transactionaccount customer to an individual whose PII is known to service providersystem 108). A cookie, or an anonymized cookie, may be installed on amatched customer's web client 102. In addition, transaction accountissuer system 106 and/or service provider system 108 may maintain ananonymized list of matched customers. For example, a list of matchedcustomers may comprise a list of cookie data associated with eachmatched customer. The anonymized list may exclude PII. Thus, customerprivacy may be safeguarded by systems 106 and/or 108.

A transaction account issuer system 106 and/or a service provider system108 may receive a campaign request from a merchant (step 206). Acampaign request may comprise a request by a merchant to targetmarketing (e.g., ad impressions associated with the merchant) to aparticular group of customers. This group of customers may be associatedwith, or identified by, one or more attributes (e.g., shoppingattributes, purchasing attributes, PII, transaction history information,demographic information, etc.) For example, a campaign request maycomprise a request by a merchant who sells electronics to targettransaction account customers who are associated with greater than athreshold number of records of charge (“ROCs”) in the electronicsindustry and who live in a particular geographic region.

Similarly, in various embodiments, a campaign request may comprise arequest by a merchant to target marketing to a group of customers basedupon any code or identifier. For example, the code may include auniversal product code (“UPC”) and/or a stock keeping unit (“SKU”). AUPC may comprise a machine-readable bar code coupled with ahuman-readable UPC number, either of which may be printed on a label ortag which is placed on an item of merchandise for purchase. Amanufacturer may assign and mark each product that it sells with a UPC.Further, once an item reaches a retailer, the retailer may furtheridentify the item with a SKU number or code and/or a variety of otherinformation for identifying a specific item or style of merchandise. Aretailer's SKU number may be either an entirely different number used toidentify each item (e.g., by style) or a modified version of themanufacturer's UPC number, derived, for example, by adding a SKU numberto the UPC number. Thus, in various embodiments, a merchant may requestthat marketing be targeted based upon one or more UPCs and/or SKUsassociated with a customer's transaction history.

In response to receiving a campaign request, a transaction accountissuer system 106 may locate a customer record associated with acustomer whose transaction history and/or attribute information fitswithin the parameters associated with the campaign request (step 208).For example, transaction account issuer system 106 may locate a customerrecord associated with a customer who has greater than a thresholdnumber of ROCs in a particular industry (e.g., the electronic industry)and who resides in a particular geographic area (e.g., New York, N.Y.).

Transaction account issuer system 106 may add, or request that serviceprovider system 108 add, campaign request data to a matched customer'scookie and/or the cookie data associated with the customer in a matchedlist (step 210). This may occur in response to locating a customerrecord associated with a customer who fits within the parametersassociated with the campaign request. Campaign request data may be addedto a cookie and/or to cookie data as a flag and/or an identifier (e.g.,a numeric or alphanumeric identifier). An identifier and/or a flag mayidentify a campaign request and/or the attributes comprising aparticular campaign request. For example, a flag may identify a campaignrequest targeted to customers who have greater than a threshold numberof ROCs and who reside in a particular geographic area.

In various embodiments, a customer may navigate or surf to a particularwebsite, whereupon the customer's web client 102 (or a browser installedon the customer's web client 102) may transmit the cookie installed onthe web client 102 to service provider system 108 and/or transactionaccount issuer system 106. A web client 102 may transmit a cookie to aservice provider system 108 and/or a transaction issuer system 106, forexample, in the event that system 106 and/or system 108 has establisheda relationship (e.g., a partnership, or an agreement to transmit acookie in response to navigation to the website) with the website. Thus,for example, where system 108 has a relationship with a particularwebsite, and a customer navigates to that website, the customer's webclient 102 may transmit the customer's cookie to system 108.

A cookie and/or a variety of cookie data (e.g., a cookie id and a flagassociated with one or more campaign requests) may be transmitted to amedia buyer system 110 (step 212). This may occur in response to receiptof a cookie by a system 108 and/or 106 of a customer's cookie from awebsite with which the system 108 and/or 106 has a relationship(because, receipt of the cookie indicates that the customer is online).Thus, and in various embodiments, cookie data may be transmitted to amedia buyer system 110 in response to a campaign request and when thecustomer is online. A media buyer system 110 may compare a flagassociated with a particular cookie id to a list of flags (which listthe media buyer system 110 may receive from a transaction account issuersystem 106). A media buyer system 110 may, based upon the comparison,determine that a particular flag is associated with a particularcampaign request. For example, a media buyer system 110 may determinethat a flag is associated with a campaign request made by a particularmerchant (e.g., a purveyor of electronics). A media buyer system 110 maythus communicate with an ad exchange 112 to purchase, or bid on, one ormore ad impressions for the cookie id based upon the flag (step 214).For example, a media buyer system 110 may purchase an ad impressionassociated with a merchant (e.g., the purveyor of electronics) whopurchased or requested a particular campaign. A media buyer system 110may further serve a purchased ad impression to a web client 102associated with the cookie id for which the ad impression was purchased(step 214). That is, for example, media buyer system 110 may serve an adimpression to a web client 102 associated with a customer who fits aparticular campaign request.

Thus, system 100 may facilitate the targeted marketing of ad impressionsto transaction account customers based upon a variety of attributes(e.g., transaction history, demographics, and the like). Each adimpression may be served to a customer irrespective of a uniformresource locator (“URL”) or address entered in a browser associated withthe customer's web client 102. That is, system 100 may facilitate thedelivery of targeted ad impressions to customers irrespective of awebsite to which each customer has surfed. Thus, system 100 may permitthe targeted delivery of ad impressions across the web.

In various embodiments, transaction account issuer system 106 maymeasure the success of a campaign request. For example, transactionaccount issuer system 106 may compare an actual spend by targetedcustomers to an actual spend by non-targeted customers who neverthelessfit the campaign request (step 218). That is, transaction account issuersystem 106 may compare expenditures associated with customers whoreceived targeted ad impressions as a result of a campaign request tocustomers who, although they did not receive targeted ad impressions,nevertheless fit the parameters of the campaign request. The differencebetween the expenditures of targeted and non-targeted customers mayillustrate an increase in value or sales arising as a result of acampaign request. In addition, click through rates (i.e., the number oftargeted advertisements transmitted to web clients 102 compared to thenumber of transmitted targeted advertisements actually clicked on orselected by customers) may be gathered or calculated. Transactionaccount issuer system 106 may, in various embodiments, generate a reportthat illustrates this increase in value or sales (or a decrease, if thisshould occur) and/or click through rates. This report and/or the datacomprising the report may be transmitted to one or more merchants, e.g.,a merchant associated with the particular campaign request (step 220).

A merchant may utilize a report showing click through rates and/or theincrease or decrease in value or sales arising as a result of a campaignrequest to optimize future campaign requests. For example, a merchantmay optimize or update a first request to target customers with a ROChigher than a threshold of three ROCs/month in a particular industry toa second request to target customers with a ROC higher than a thresholdof five ROCs/month in the industry. A merchant may, for example, chooseto optimize a campaign request in this way based upon a narrow or smallincrease in sales to targeted customers over sales to customers who fitthe campaign request but were not served ad impressions.

In various embodiments, system 100 may perform look alike modeling. Forinstance, in a variety of embodiments, a service provider system 108 mayreceive or generate a matched list, as described elsewhere herein.Service provider system 108 may, as further described elsewhere herein,update cookies comprising the matched list with campaign request data(e.g., a flag). However, in addition to targeting ad impressions tocustomers associated with the matched list, in a variety of embodiments,system 108 may compare attributes of matched customers to attributesassociated with other, non-matched, consumers. These non-matchedconsumers may not hold transaction accounts issued by transactionaccount issuer system 106. Where system 108 locates consumers withattributes that are similar, or look like, attributes associated withmatched customers, system 108 may request that media buyer system 110purchase ad impressions for these consumers as well. That is, system 108may add a flag associated with a campaign request to the cookies ofconsumers who are not associated with the matched list. Media buyersystem 110 may purchase, or bid on, ad impressions for these consumersas described elsewhere herein.

Thus, system 100 may not only target ad impressions to customers basedupon a merchant campaign request; it may target ad impressions toconsumers who look like those customers selected by transaction accountissuer system 106 for participation in a campaign request. In otherwords, system 100 may serve ad impressions to any consumer whose PII isknown to or stored by with service provider system 108.

With reference now to FIG. 3, system 100 may permit a customer orconsumer to select one or more types or categories of ad impressions.More particularly, system 100 may display, or cause to be displayed, aweb page or dialog box 300, which may include an ad impression selectionoption 302. A customer or consumer may use this option to select one ormore types or categories of ad impression in which the customer orconsumer is interested or in which the customer or consumer has littleor no interest. For example, a customer or consumer may select anelectronics or fashion option, in which case, the customer or consumermay receive ad impressions associated with electronics and fashionretailers and/or merchants offering similar items for sale. Similarly, acustomer or consumer may select a romance or literature option toindicate, rather than that the customer is interested in ad impressionsrelated to these subjects, that the customer or consumer prefers not toreceive ad impressions associated with these subjects.

With reference to FIG. 4, system 100 may, in addition, permit a customeror consumer to opt out of a particular ad impression. For example,system 100 may display, or cause to be displayed, a web page or dialogbox 400, which may include one or more ad impressions 402 a and/or 402b. A customer or consumer may choose to view one of the ads 402 a and/or402 b by selecting a “View” (or similar) option 404 a and/or 404 b. Acustomer or consumer may, in addition, opt out of one or more adimpressions by selecting an opt out option 406 a and/or 406 b.

In various embodiments, whether a customer or a consumer chooses to optinto or out of a category or type of ad impressions or a particular adimpression, a transaction account issuer system 106 and/or a serviceprovider system 108 may modify a cookie associated with the customer orconsumer to associate or dissociate the customer or consumer with thecategory, type, or particular ad impression. For instance, system 106and/or 108 may add a flag associated with a particular type or categoryof ad impression (which may be the same as a flag associated with acampaign request) to a customer's or consumer's cookie. This flag may beused, as described elsewhere herein, to purchase and deliver adimpressions to a customer or consumer. Likewise, system 106 and/orsystem 108 may remove a flag associated with a particular type orcategory of ad impression, or with a particular ad impression, from acustomer's or consumer's cookie. Where a flag is removed, a media buyersystem may not bid on the type, category, or particular ad impressionassociated with that flag. Thus, a customer or consumer may selectivelyopt into and out of ad impressions based upon the user's preferences.

Systems, methods and computer program products are provided. In thedetailed description herein, references to “various embodiments”, “oneembodiment”, “an embodiment”, “an example embodiment”, etc., indicatethat the embodiment described may include a particular feature,structure, or characteristic, but every embodiment may not necessarilyinclude the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover,such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment.Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic isdescribed in connection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it iswithin the knowledge of one skilled in the art to effect such feature,structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodimentswhether or not explicitly described. After reading the description, itwill be apparent to one skilled in the relevant art(s) how to implementthe disclosure in alternative embodiments.

In various embodiments, the methods described herein are implementedusing the various particular machines described herein. The methodsdescribed herein may be implemented using the below particular machines,and those hereinafter developed, in any suitable combination, as wouldbe appreciated immediately by one skilled in the art. Further, as isunambiguous from this disclosure, the methods described herein mayresult in various transformations of certain articles.

For the sake of brevity, conventional data networking, applicationdevelopment and other functional aspects of the systems (and componentsof the individual operating components of the systems) may not bedescribed in detail herein. Furthermore, the connecting lines shown inthe various figures contained herein are intended to represent exemplaryfunctional relationships and/or physical couplings between the variouselements. It should be noted that many alternative or additionalfunctional relationships or physical connections may be present in apractical system.

The various system components discussed herein may include one or moreof the following: a host server or other computing systems including aprocessor for processing digital data; a memory coupled to the processorfor storing digital data; an input digitizer coupled to the processorfor inputting digital data; an application program stored in the memoryand accessible by the processor for directing processing of digital databy the processor; a display device coupled to the processor and memoryfor displaying information derived from digital data processed by theprocessor; and a plurality of databases. Various databases used hereinmay include: client data; merchant data; financial institution data;and/or like data useful in the operation of the system. As those skilledin the art will appreciate, user computer may include an operatingsystem (e.g., Windows NT, Windows 95/98/2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista,Windows 7, OS2, UNIX, Linux, Solaris, MacOS, etc.) as well as variousconventional support software and drivers typically associated withcomputers. A user may include any individual, business, entity,government organization, software and/or hardware that interact with asystem.

In an embodiment, various components, modules, and/or engines of system100 may be implemented as micro-applications or micro-apps. Micro-appsare typically deployed in the context of a mobile operating system,including for example, a Palm mobile operating system, a Windows mobileoperating system, an Android Operating System, Apple iOS, a Blackberryoperating system and the like. The micro-app may be configured toleverage the resources of the larger operating system and associatedhardware via a set of predetermined rules which govern the operations ofvarious operating systems and hardware resources. For example, where amicro-app desires to communicate with a device or network other than themobile device or mobile operating system, the micro-app may leverage thecommunication protocol of the operating system and associated devicehardware under the predetermined rules of the mobile operating system.Moreover, where the micro-app desires an input from a user, themicro-app may be configured to request a response from the operatingsystem which monitors various hardware components and then communicatesa detected input from the hardware to the micro-app.

As used herein, “transmit” may include sending electronic data from onesystem component to another over a network connection. Additionally, asused herein, “data” may include encompassing information such ascommands, queries, files, data for storage, and the like in digital orany other form.

The system contemplates uses in association with web services, utilitycomputing, pervasive and individualized computing, security and identitysolutions, autonomic computing, cloud computing, commodity computing,mobility and wireless solutions, open source, biometrics, grid computingand/or mesh computing.

Any databases discussed herein may include relational, hierarchical,graphical, or object-oriented structure and/or any other databaseconfigurations. Common database products that may be used to implementthe databases include DB2 by IBM (Armonk, N.Y.), various databaseproducts available from Oracle Corporation (Redwood Shores, Calif.),Microsoft Access or Microsoft SQL Server by Microsoft Corporation(Redmond, Wash.), MySQL by MySQL AB (Uppsala, Sweden), or any othersuitable database product. Moreover, the databases may be organized inany suitable manner, for example, as data tables or lookup tables. Eachrecord may be a single file, a series of files, a linked series of datafields or any other data structure. Association of certain data may beaccomplished through any desired data association technique such asthose known or practiced in the art. For example, the association may beaccomplished either manually or automatically. Automatic associationtechniques may include, for example, a database search, a databasemerge, GREP, AGREP, SQL, using a key field in the tables to speedsearches, sequential searches through all the tables and files, sortingrecords in the file according to a known order to simplify lookup,and/or the like. The association step may be accomplished by a databasemerge function, for example, using a “key field” in pre-selecteddatabases or data sectors. Various database tuning steps arecontemplated to optimize database performance. For example, frequentlyused files such as indexes may be placed on separate file systems toreduce In/Out (“I/O”) bottlenecks.

More particularly, a “key field” partitions the database according tothe high-level class of objects defined by the key field. For example,certain types of data may be designated as a key field in a plurality ofrelated data tables and the data tables may then be linked on the basisof the type of data in the key field. The data corresponding to the keyfield in each of the linked data tables is preferably the same or of thesame type. However, data tables having similar, though not identical,data in the key fields may also be linked by using AGREP, for example.In accordance with one embodiment, any suitable data storage techniquemay be utilized to store data without a standard format. Data sets maybe stored using any suitable technique, including, for example, storingindividual files using an ISO/IEC 7816-4 file structure; implementing adomain whereby a dedicated file is selected that exposes one or moreelementary files containing one or more data sets; using data setsstored in individual files using a hierarchical filing system; data setsstored as records in a single file (including compression, SQLaccessible, hashed via one or more keys, numeric, alphabetical by firsttuple, etc.); Binary Large Object (BLOB); stored as ungrouped dataelements encoded using ISO/IEC 7816-6 data elements; stored as ungroupeddata elements encoded using ISO/IEC Abstract Syntax Notation (ASN.1) asin ISO/IEC 8824 and 8825; and/or other proprietary techniques that mayinclude fractal compression methods, image compression methods, etc.

In one exemplary embodiment, the ability to store a wide variety ofinformation in different formats is facilitated by storing theinformation as a BLOB. Thus, any binary information can be stored in astorage space associated with a data set. As discussed above, the binaryinformation may be stored on the financial transaction instrument orexternal to but affiliated with the financial transaction instrument.The BLOB method may store data sets as ungrouped data elements formattedas a block of binary via a fixed memory offset using either fixedstorage allocation, circular queue techniques, or best practices withrespect to memory management (e.g., paged memory, least recently used,etc.). By using BLOB methods, the ability to store various data setsthat have different formats facilitates the storage of data associatedwith the financial transaction instrument by multiple and unrelatedowners of the data sets. For example, a first data set which may bestored may be provided by a first party, a second data set which may bestored may be provided by an unrelated second party, and yet a thirddata set which may be stored, may be provided by an third partyunrelated to the first and second party. Each of these three exemplarydata sets may contain different information that is stored usingdifferent data storage formats and/or techniques. Further, each data setmay contain subsets of data that also may be distinct from othersubsets.

As stated above, in various embodiments, the data can be stored withoutregard to a common format. However, in one exemplary embodiment, thedata set (e.g., BLOB) may be annotated in a standard manner whenprovided for manipulating the data onto the financial transactioninstrument. The annotation may comprise a short header, trailer, orother appropriate indicator related to each data set that is configuredto convey information useful in managing the various data sets. Forexample, the annotation may be called a “condition header”, “header”,“trailer”, or “status”, herein, and may comprise an indication of thestatus of the data set or may include an identifier correlated to aspecific issuer or owner of the data. In one example, the first threebytes of each data set BLOB may be configured or configurable toindicate the status of that particular data set; e.g., LOADED,INITIALIZED, READY, BLOCKED, REMOVABLE, or DELETED. Subsequent bytes ofdata may be used to indicate for example, the identity of the issuer,user, transaction/membership account identifier or the like. Each ofthese condition annotations are further discussed herein.

The data set annotation may also be used for other types of statusinformation as well as various other purposes. For example, the data setannotation may include security information establishing access levels.The access levels may, for example, be configured to permit only certainindividuals, levels of employees, companies, or other entities to accessdata sets, or to permit access to specific data sets based on thetransaction, merchant, issuer, user or the like. Furthermore, thesecurity information may restrict/permit only certain actions such asaccessing, modifying, and/or deleting data sets. In one example, thedata set annotation indicates that only the data set owner or the userare permitted to delete a data set, various identified users may bepermitted to access the data set for reading, and others are altogetherexcluded from accessing the data set. However, other access restrictionparameters may also be used allowing various entities to access a dataset with various permission levels as appropriate.

The data, including the header or trailer may be received by a standalone interaction device configured to add, delete, modify, or augmentthe data in accordance with the header or trailer. As such, in oneembodiment, the header or trailer is not stored on the transactiondevice along with the associated issuer-owned data but instead theappropriate action may be taken by providing to the transactioninstrument user at the stand alone device, the appropriate option forthe action to be taken. The system may contemplate a data storagearrangement wherein the header or trailer, or header or trailer history,of the data is stored on the transaction instrument in relation to theappropriate data.

One skilled in the art will also appreciate that, for security reasons,any databases, systems, devices, servers or other components of thesystem may consist of any combination thereof at a single location or atmultiple locations, wherein each database or system includes any ofvarious suitable security features, such as firewalls, access codes,encryption, decryption, compression, decompression, and/or the like.

Encryption may be performed by way of any of the techniques nowavailable in the art or which may become available—e.g., Twofish, RSA,El Gamal, Schorr signature, DSA, PGP, PKI, and symmetric and asymmetriccryptosystems.

The computing unit of the web client may be further equipped with anInternet browser connected to the Internet or an intranet using standarddial-up, cable, DSL or any other Internet protocol known in the art.Transactions originating at a web client may pass through a firewall inorder to prevent unauthorized access from users of other networks.Further, additional firewalls may be deployed between the varyingcomponents of CMS to further enhance security.

Firewall may include any hardware and/or software suitably configured toprotect CMS components and/or enterprise computing resources from usersof other networks. Further, a firewall may be configured to limit orrestrict access to various systems and components behind the firewallfor web clients connecting through a web server. Firewall may reside invarying configurations including Stateful Inspection, Proxy based,access control lists, and Packet Filtering among others. Firewall may beintegrated within an web server or any other CMS components or mayfurther reside as a separate entity. A firewall may implement networkaddress translation (“NAT”) and/or network address port translation(“NAPT”). A firewall may accommodate various tunneling protocols tofacilitate secure communications, such as those used in virtual privatenetworking. A firewall may implement a demilitarized zone (“DMZ”) tofacilitate communications with a public network such as the Internet. Afirewall may be integrated as software within an Internet server, anyother application server components or may reside within anothercomputing device or may take the form of a standalone hardwarecomponent.

The computers discussed herein may provide a suitable website or otherInternet-based graphical user interface which is accessible by users. Inone embodiment, the Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS),Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS), and Microsoft SQL Server, are usedin conjunction with the Microsoft operating system, Microsoft NT webserver software, a Microsoft SQL Server database system, and a MicrosoftCommerce Server. Additionally, components such as Access or MicrosoftSQL Server, Oracle, Sybase, Informix MySQL, Interbase, etc., may be usedto provide an Active Data Object (ADO) compliant database managementsystem. In one embodiment, the Apache web server is used in conjunctionwith a Linux operating system, a MySQL database, and the Perl, PHP,and/or Python programming languages.

Any of the communications, inputs, storage, databases or displaysdiscussed herein may be facilitated through a website having web pages.The term “web page” as it is used herein is not meant to limit the typeof documents and applications that might be used to interact with theuser. For example, a typical website might include, in addition tostandard HTML documents, various forms, Java applets, JavaScript, activeserver pages (ASP), common gateway interface scripts (CGI), extensiblemarkup language (XML), dynamic HTML, cascading style sheets (CSS), AJAX(Asynchronous Javascript And XML), helper applications, plug-ins, andthe like. A server may include a web service that receives a requestfrom a web server, the request including a URL(http://yahoo.com/stockquotes/ge) and an IP address (123.56.789.234).The web server retrieves the appropriate web pages and sends the data orapplications for the web pages to the IP address. Web services areapplications that are capable of interacting with other applicationsover a communications means, such as the internet. Web services aretypically based on standards or protocols such as XML, SOAP, AJAX, WSDLand UDDI. Web services methods are well known in the art, and arecovered in many standard texts. See, e.g., ALEX NGHIEM, IT WEB SERVICES:A ROADMAP FOR THE ENTERPRISE (2003), hereby incorporated by reference.

Middleware may include any hardware and/or software suitably configuredto facilitate communications and/or process transactions betweendisparate computing systems. Middleware components are commerciallyavailable and known in the art. Middleware may be implemented throughcommercially available hardware and/or software, through custom hardwareand/or software components, or through a combination thereof. Middlewaremay reside in a variety of configurations and may exist as a standalonesystem or may be a software component residing on the Internet server.Middleware may be configured to process transactions between the variouscomponents of an application server and any number of internal orexternal systems for any of the purposes disclosed herein. WebSphere MQ™(formerly MQSeries) by IBM, Inc. (Armonk, N.Y.) is an example of acommercially available middleware product. An Enterprise Service Bus(“ESB”) application is another example of middleware.

Practitioners will also appreciate that there are a number of methodsfor displaying data within a browser-based document. Data may berepresented as standard text or within a fixed list, scrollable list,drop-down list, editable text field, fixed text field, pop-up window,and the like. Likewise, there are a number of methods available formodifying data in a web page such as, for example, free text entry usinga keyboard, selection of menu items, check boxes, option boxes, and thelike.

The system and method may be described herein in terms of functionalblock components, screen shots, optional selections and variousprocessing steps. It should be appreciated that such functional blocksmay be realized by any number of hardware and/or software componentsconfigured to perform the specified functions. For example, the systemmay employ various integrated circuit components, e.g., memory elements,processing elements, logic elements, look-up tables, and the like, whichmay carry out a variety of functions under the control of one or moremicroprocessors or other control devices. Similarly, the softwareelements of the system may be implemented with any programming orscripting language such as C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, VBScript,Macromedia Cold Fusion, COBOL, Microsoft Active Server Pages, assembly,PERL, PHP, awk, Python, Visual Basic, SQL Stored Procedures, PL/SQL, anyUNIX shell script, and extensible markup language (XML) with the variousalgorithms being implemented with any combination of data structures,objects, processes, routines or other programming elements. Further, itshould be noted that the system may employ any number of conventionaltechniques for data transmission, signaling, data processing, networkcontrol, and the like. Still further, the system could be used to detector prevent security issues with a client-side scripting language, suchas JavaScript, VBScript or the like. For a basic introduction ofcryptography and network security, see any of the following references:(1) “Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms, And Source Code In C,”by Bruce Schneier, published by John Wiley & Sons (second edition,1995); (2) “Java Cryptography” by Jonathan Knudson, published byO'Reilly & Associates (1998); (3) “Cryptography & Network Security:Principles & Practice” by William Stallings, published by Prentice Hall;all of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

As used herein, the term “end user”, “consumer”, “customer”,“cardmember”, “business” or “merchant” may be used interchangeably witheach other, and each may mean any person, entity, machine, hardware,software or business. A bank may be part of the system, but the bank mayrepresent other types of card issuing institutions, such as credit cardcompanies, card sponsoring companies, or third party issuers undercontract with financial institutions. It is further noted that otherparticipants may be involved in some phases of the transaction, such asan intermediary settlement institution, but these participants are notshown.

Each participant is equipped with a computing device in order tointeract with the system and facilitate online commerce transactions.The customer has a computing unit in the form of a personal computer,although other types of computing units may be used including laptops,notebooks, hand held computers, set-top boxes, cellular telephones,touch-tone telephones and the like. The merchant has a computing unitimplemented in the form of a computer-server, although otherimplementations are contemplated by the system. The bank has a computingcenter shown as a main frame computer. However, the bank computingcenter may be implemented in other forms, such as a mini-computer, a PCserver, a network of computers located in the same of differentgeographic locations, or the like. Moreover, the system contemplates theuse, sale or distribution of any goods, services or information over anynetwork having similar functionality described herein.

The merchant computer and the bank computer may be interconnected via asecond network, referred to as a payment network. The payment networkwhich may be part of certain transactions represents existingproprietary networks that presently accommodate transactions for creditcards, debit cards, and other types of financial/banking cards. Thepayment network is a closed network that is assumed to be secure fromeavesdroppers. Exemplary transaction networks may include the AmericanExpress®, VisaNet® and the Veriphone® networks.

The electronic commerce system may be implemented at the customer andissuing bank. In an exemplary implementation, the electronic commercesystem is implemented as computer software modules loaded onto thecustomer computer and the banking computing center. The merchantcomputer does not require any additional software to participate in theonline commerce transactions supported by the online commerce system.

As will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, the systemmay be embodied as a customization of an existing system, an add-onproduct, upgraded software, a stand alone system, a distributed system,a method, a data processing system, a device for data processing, and/ora computer program product. Accordingly, the system may take the form ofan entirely software embodiment, an entirely hardware embodiment, or anembodiment combining aspects of both software and hardware. Furthermore,the system may take the form of a computer program product on acomputer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program codemeans embodied in the storage medium. Any suitable computer-readablestorage medium may be utilized, including hard disks, CD-ROM, opticalstorage devices, magnetic storage devices, and/or the like.

The system and method is described herein with reference to screenshots, block diagrams and flowchart illustrations of methods, apparatus(e.g., systems), and computer program products according to variousembodiments. It will be understood that each functional block of theblock diagrams and the flowchart illustrations, and combinations offunctional blocks in the block diagrams and flowchart illustrations,respectively, can be implemented by computer program instructions.

These computer program instructions may be loaded onto a general purposecomputer, special purpose computer, or other programmable dataprocessing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructionsthat execute on the computer or other programmable data processingapparatus create means for implementing the functions specified in theflowchart block or blocks. These computer program instructions may alsobe stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer orother programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readablememory produce an article of manufacture including instruction meanswhich implement the function specified in the flowchart block or blocks.The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer orother programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series ofoperational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmableapparatus to produce a computer-implemented process such that theinstructions which execute on the computer or other programmableapparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in theflowchart block or blocks.

Accordingly, functional blocks of the block diagrams and flowchartillustrations support combinations of means for performing the specifiedfunctions, combinations of steps for performing the specified functions,and program instruction means for performing the specified functions. Itwill also be understood that each functional block of the block diagramsand flowchart illustrations, and combinations of functional blocks inthe block diagrams and flowchart illustrations, can be implemented byeither special purpose hardware-based computer systems which perform thespecified functions or steps, or suitable combinations of specialpurpose hardware and computer instructions. Further, illustrations ofthe process flows and the descriptions thereof may make reference touser windows, webpages, websites, web forms, prompts, etc. Practitionerswill appreciate that the illustrated steps described herein may comprisein any number of configurations including the use of windows, webpages,web forms, popup windows, prompts and the like. It should be furtherappreciated that the multiple steps as illustrated and described may becombined into single webpages and/or windows but have been expanded forthe sake of simplicity. In other cases, steps illustrated and describedas single process steps may be separated into multiple webpages and/orwindows but have been combined for simplicity.

Benefits, other advantages, and solutions to problems have beendescribed herein with regard to specific embodiments. However, thebenefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any elements that maycause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become morepronounced are not to be construed as critical, required, or essentialfeatures or elements of the disclosure. The scope of the disclosure isaccordingly to be limited by nothing other than the appended claims, inwhich reference to an element in the singular is not intended to mean“one and only one” unless explicitly so stated, but rather “one ormore.” Moreover, where a phrase similar to ‘at least one of A, B, and C’or ‘at least one of A, B, or C’ is used in the claims or specification,it is intended that the phrase be interpreted to mean that A alone maybe present in an embodiment, B alone may be present in an embodiment, Calone may be present in an embodiment, or that any combination of theelements A, B and C may be present in a single embodiment; for example,A and B, A and C, B and C, or A and B and C. Although the disclosureincludes a method, it is contemplated that it may be embodied ascomputer program instructions on a tangible computer-readable carrier,such as a magnetic or optical memory or a magnetic or optical disk. Allstructural, chemical, and functional equivalents to the elements of theabove-described exemplary embodiments that are known to those ofordinary skill in the art are expressly incorporated herein by referenceand are intended to be encompassed by the present claims. Moreover, itis not necessary for a device or method to address each and everyproblem sought to be solved by the present disclosure, for it to beencompassed by the present claims. Furthermore, no element, component,or method step in the present disclosure is intended to be dedicated tothe public regardless of whether the element, component, or method stepis explicitly recited in the claims. No claim element herein is to beconstrued under the provisions of 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, unlessthe element is expressly recited using the phrase “means for.” As usedherein, the terms “comprises”, “comprising”, or any other variationthereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that aprocess, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elementsdoes not include only those elements but may include other elements notexpressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, orapparatus.

In yet another embodiment, the transponder, transponder-reader, and/ortransponder-reader system are configured with a biometric securitysystem that may be used for providing biometrics as a secondary form ofidentification. The biometric security system may include a transponderand a reader communicating with the system. The biometric securitysystem also may include a biometric sensor that detects biometricsamples and a device for verifying biometric samples. The biometricsecurity system may be configured with one or more biometric scanners,processors and/or systems. A biometric system may include one or moretechnologies, or any portion thereof, such as, for example, recognitionof a biometric. As used herein, a biometric may include a user's voice,fingerprint, facial, ear, signature, vascular patterns, DNA sampling,hand geometry, sound, olfactory, keystroke/typing, iris, retinal or anyother biometric relating to recognition based upon any body part,function, system, attribute and/or other characteristic, or any portionthereof.

Phrases and terms similar to “account”, “account number”, “accountcode,” “consumer account,” or “transaction account” as used herein, mayinclude any device, code (e.g., one or more of an authorization/accesscode, personal identification number (“PIN”), Internet code, otheridentification code, and/or the like), number, letter, symbol, digitalcertificate, smart chip, digital signal, analog signal, biometric orother identifier/indicia suitably configured to allow the consumer toaccess, interact with or communicate with the system. The account numbermay optionally be located on or associated with a rewards account,charge account, credit account, debit account, prepaid account,telephone card, embossed card, smart card, magnetic stripe card, barcode card, transponder, radio frequency card or an associated account.

The system may include or interface with any of the foregoing accountsor devices, a transponder and reader in RF communication with thetransponder (which may include a fob), or communications between aninitiator and a target enabled by near field communications (NFC).Typical devices may include, for example, a key ring, tag, card, cellphone, wristwatch or any such form capable of being presented forinterrogation. Moreover, the system, computing unit or device discussedherein may include a “pervasive computing device,” which may include atraditionally non-computerized device that is embedded with a computingunit. Examples may include watches, Internet enabled kitchen appliances,restaurant tables embedded with RF readers, wallets or purses withimbedded transponders, etc. Furthermore, a device or financialtransaction instrument may have electronic and communicationsfunctionality enabled, for example, by: a network of electroniccircuitry that is printed or otherwise incorporated onto or within thetransaction instrument (and typically referred to as a “smart card”); afob having a transponder and an RFID reader; and/or near fieldcommunication (NFC) technologies. For more information regarding NFC,refer to the following specifications all of which are incorporated byreference herein: ISO/IEC 18092/ECMA-340, Near Field CommunicationInterface and Protocol-1 (NFCIP-1); ISO/IEC 21481/ECMA-352, Near FieldCommunication Interface and Protocol-2 (NFCIP-2); and EMV 4.2 availableat http://www.emvco.com/default.aspx.

The account number may be distributed and stored in any form of plastic,electronic, magnetic, radio frequency, wireless, audio and/or opticaldevice capable of transmitting or downloading data from itself to asecond device. A consumer account number may be, for example, asixteen-digit account number, although each credit provider has its ownnumbering system, such as the fifteen-digit numbering system used byAmerican Express. Each company's account numbers comply with thatcompany's standardized format such that the company using afifteen-digit format will generally use three-spaced sets of numbers, asrepresented by the number “0000 000000 00000”. The first five to sevendigits are reserved for processing purposes and identify the issuingbank, account type, etc. In this example, the last (fifteenth) digit isused as a sum check for the fifteen digit number. The intermediaryeight-to-eleven digits are used to uniquely identify the consumer. Amerchant account number may be, for example, any number or alpha-numericcharacters that identify a particular merchant for purposes of accountacceptance, account reconciliation, reporting, or the like.

Phrases similar to a “payment processor” may include a company (e.g., athird party) appointed (e.g., by a merchant) to handle transactions formerchant banks. Payment processors may be broken down into two types:front-end and back-end. Front-end payment processors have connections tovarious transaction accounts and supply authorization and settlementservices to the merchant banks' merchants. Back-end payment processorsaccept settlements from front-end payment processors and, via TheFederal Reserve Bank, move money from an issuing bank to the merchantbank. In an operation that will usually take a few seconds, the paymentprocessor will both check the details received by forwarding the detailsto the respective account's issuing bank or card association forverification, and may carry out a series of anti-fraud measures againstthe transaction. Additional parameters, including the account's countryof issue and its previous payment history, may be used to gauge theprobability of the transaction being approved. In response to thepayment processor receiving confirmation that the transaction accountdetails have been verified, the information may be relayed back to themerchant, who will then complete the payment transaction. In response tothe verification being denied, the payment processor relays theinformation to the merchant, who may then decline the transaction.Phrases similar to a “payment gateway” or “gateway” may include anapplication service provider service that authorizes payments fore-businesses, online retailers, and/or traditional brick and mortarmerchants. The gateway may be the equivalent of a physical point of saleterminal located in most retail outlets. A payment gateway may protecttransaction account details by encrypting sensitive information, such astransaction account numbers, to ensure that information passes securelybetween the customer and the merchant and also between merchant andpayment processor.

The term “non-transitory” is to be understood to remove only propagatingtransitory signals per se from the claim scope and does not relinquishrights to all standard computer-readable media that are not onlypropagating transitory signals per se. Stated another way, the meaningof the term “non-transitory computer-readable medium” should beconstrued to exclude only those types of transitory computer-readablemedia which were found in In Re Nuijten to fall outside the scope ofpatentable subject matter under 35 U.S.C. §101.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system comprising: a processor, a tangible,non-transitory memory configured to communicate with the processor, thetangible, non-transitory memory having instructions stored thereon that,in response to execution by the processor, cause the processor toperform operations comprising: determining, by the processor and inresponse to receiving, a first group of customers for an ad impression;selecting, by the processor and based on the determining, a second groupof customers based on look alike modeling of the first group ofcustomers; transmitting, by the processor and in response to theselecting, a list of customer records containing the first group ofcustomers and the second group of customers to a service providersystem, wherein the list of customer records is created based on atleast one of a product identifier or a type of customer to be targetedby a merchant as part of a campaign request, wherein the serviceprovider system identifies a matched customer, wherein the identifyingthe matched customer is based on personally identifying information(PII) from a transaction account issuer system matching the PII storedby the service provider system, wherein a cookie is installed on a webclient associated with the matched customer, wherein the cookie isinstalled by at least one of the service provider system or thetransaction account issuer system, wherein the cookie is an anonymizedcookie that is stripped of PII that is associated with the matchedcustomer, wherein upon navigating to a website, the web client transmitsthe cookie to at least one of the service provider system or thetransaction account issuer system that has a relationship with thewebsite to indicate that the matched customer is online, wherein thematched customer is part of an anonymized list of matched customers,wherein the anonymized list of matched customers comprises cookie dataassociated with each matched customer and excludes the PII;transmitting, by the processor and in response to installing the cookie,the campaign request to the service provider system, wherein the serviceprovider system tags the cookie with a tag based on the campaignrequest, wherein the tag includes instructions for instructing a mediabuyer system to bid on the ad impression for the matched customer basedon the tag, wherein upon navigating to a website, the cookie istransmitted from the web client to the media buyer system to indicatethat the matched customer is online, wherein the media buyer systempurchases the ad impression that is sent to the matched customer;modifying, by the processor and in response to tagging the cookie, thecookie to at least one of: associate or disassociate the matchedcustomer with at least one of: a category or type of the ad impression;identifying, by the processor and based on the modifying, a firstexpenditure associated with the matched customer that received the adimpression; comparing, by the processor, the first expenditure to asecond expenditure associated with a customer that did not receive thead impression based on the campaign request but fits parametersassociated with the campaign request; and generating, by the processor,a report showing the results of the comparing.
 2. The system of claim 1,wherein the service provider system determines the matched customer byanalyzing the PII.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein the productidentifier is at least one of a universal product code or a stockkeeping unit.
 4. The system of claim 1, further configured to performoperations comprising receiving the campaign request from the merchant,wherein the campaign request includes the type of customer to betargeted.
 5. The system of claim 1, further configured to performoperations comprising determining, by the processor, a value of the adimpression based on the comparing.
 6. The system of claim 1, furtherconfigured to perform operations comprising permitting, by the processorand via the web client, the matched customer to select a type of adimpression in which the matched customer is interested.
 7. The system ofclaim 1, further configured to perform operations comprising generating,by the processor, a report showing a click through associated withcustomers that received the ad impression.
 8. The system of claim 1,wherein the first group of customers and the second group of customersare included in the list of customer records.
 9. The system of claim 1,wherein the tags are based on at least one of transaction history orattribute information that fits within parameters associated with thecampaign request.
 10. The system of claim 1, further comprisingfiltering the list of customer records based on at least one oftransaction history or attribute information that fits within parametersassociated with the campaign request.
 11. A method, comprising:determining, by a computer based system and in response to receiving, afirst group of customers for an ad impression; selecting, by thecomputer based system and based on the determining, a second group ofcustomers based on look alike modeling of the first group of customers;transmitting, by the computer based system and in response to theselecting, a list of customer records containing the first group ofcustomers and the second group of customers to a service providersystem, wherein the list of customer records is created based on atleast one of a product identifier or a type of customer to be targetedby a merchant as part of a campaign request, wherein the serviceprovider system identifies a matched customer, wherein the identifyingthe matched customer is based on personally identifying information(PII) from a transaction account issuer system matching the PII storedby the service provider system, wherein a cookie is installed on a webclient associated with the matched customer, wherein the cookie isinstalled by at least one of the service provider system or thetransaction account issuer system, wherein the cookie is an anonymizedcookie that is stripped of PII that is associated with the matchedcustomer, wherein the matched customer is part of an anonymized list ofmatched customers, wherein the anonymized list of matched customerscomprises cookie data associated with each matched customer and excludesthe PII; transmitting, by the computer based system and in response toinstalling the cookie, the campaign request to the service providersystem, wherein the service provider system tags the cookie with a tagbased on the campaign request, wherein the tag includes instructions forinstructing a media buyer system to bid on the ad impression for thematched customer based on the tag, wherein upon navigating to a website,the cookie is transmitted from the web client to the media buyer systemto indicate that the matched customer is online, wherein the media buyersystem purchases the ad impression that is sent to the matched customer;modifying, by the computer based system and in response to tagging thecookie, the cookie to at least one of: associate or disassociate thematched customer with at least one of: a category or type of the adimpression; identifying, by the computer based system and based on themodifying, a first expenditure associated with the matched customer thatreceived the ad impression; comparing, by the computer based system, thefirst expenditure to a second expenditure associated with a customerthat did not receive the ad impression based on the campaign request butfits parameters associated with the campaign request; and generating, bythe computer based system, a report showing the results of thecomparing.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the service providersystem determines the matched customer by analyzing the PII.
 13. Themethod of claim 11, wherein the product identifier is at least one of auniversal product code or a stock keeping unit.
 14. An article ofmanufacture including a non-transitory, tangible computer readablestorage medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response toexecution by a computer-based system, cause the computer-based system toperform operations comprising: determining, by the computer based systemand in response to receiving, a first group of customers for an adimpression; selecting, by the computer based system and based on thedetermining, a second group of customers based on look alike modeling ofthe first group of customers; transmitting, by the computer based systemand in response to the selecting, a list of customer records containingthe first group of customers and the second group of customers to aservice provider system, wherein the list of customer records is createdbased on at least one of a product identifier or a type of customer tobe targeted by a merchant as part of a campaign request, wherein theservice provider system identifies a matched customer, wherein theidentifying the matched customer is based on personally identifyinginformation (PII) from a transaction account issuer system matching thePII stored by the service provider system, wherein a cookie is installedon a web client associated with the matched customer, wherein the cookieis installed by at least one of the service provider system or thetransaction account issuer system, wherein the cookie is an anonymizedcookie that is stripped of PII that is associated with the matchedcustomer, wherein the matched customer is part of an anonymized list ofmatched customers, wherein the anonymized list of matched customerscomprises cookie data associated with each matched customer and excludesthe PII; transmitting, by the computer based system and in response toinstalling the cookie, the campaign request to the service providersystem, wherein the service provider system tags the cookie with a tagbased on the campaign request, wherein the tag includes instructions forinstructing a media buyer system to bid on the ad impression for thematched customer based on the tag, wherein upon navigating to a website,the cookie is transmitted from the web client to the media buyer systemto indicate that the matched customer is online, wherein the media buyersystem purchases the ad impression that is sent to the matched customer;modifying, by the computer based system and in response to tagging thecookie, the cookie to at least one of: associate or disassociate thematched customer with at least one of: a category or type of the adimpression; identifying, by the computer based system and based on themodifying, a first expenditure associated with the matched customer thatreceived the ad impression; comparing, by the computer based system, thefirst expenditure to a second expenditure associated with a customerthat did not receive the ad impression based on the campaign request butfits parameters associated with the campaign request; and generating, bythe computer based system, a report showing the results of thecomparing.